UPDATE 3: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow played the video of Romney’s “airplane windows” comment on Monday and still reported it as a gaffe, saying that the footage may “end up being a turning point in the election.”

UPDATE 2: The initial Los Angeles Times story that reported Mitt Romney’s airplane remark was based on a pool report by the New York Times’ Ashley Parker, who later emailed New York Magazine and confirmed that the presidential candidate was joking. Mystery solved.

The Los Angeles Times story that relayed Romney’s airplane remark to the world was based off a pool report written by the New York Times‘s Ashley Parker. When we asked Parker this morning whether it seemed as if Romney made the mark in jest, she left no doubt. “Romney was joking,” she e-mailed. Parker told us that while the pool report didn’t explicitly indicate that Romney was joking, it was self-evident that he was.

–

UPDATE (8:20 p.m.): William Everitt, vice president of Investment Real Estate Associates (IREA), told TheBlaze that he was at the Romney fundraiser in Beverly Hills on Saturday. He said Romney was absolutely joking when he said he doesn’t know why airplane windows don’t open.

“Basically he was retelling the story and when he said ‘I don’t know why they don’t have roll down windows on airplanes,’ he looked at the audience and everyone laughed,” Everitt told TheBlaze. “It was a clearly delivered joke…There were 1,000 people there that will tell you the same thing.”

If what Everitt is saying is true, this could be an instance where a gullible media jumped at the opportunity to make Romney look stupid. An initial report by The Los Angeles Times did not indicate that the remarks were made jokingly, however, a later LA Times article mentions that the comments may have been a joke.

TheBlaze is working to get comments from additional fundraiser attendees as well as the Romney campaign. Check back later for more updates.

For now, here is a rundown of some of the media outlets that reported Romney’s comments as a gaffe:

Additionally, MSNBC host Ed Schultz mocked Romney on his show Monday, lecturing the GOP presidential nominee for his comments on airplane windows. After condescendingly lecturing on why you can’t open airplane windows, he

“This guy wants to have authority over the Federal Aviation Administration,” he said.

The Majority Report with Sam Seder, a small time podcast, also attacked Romney over the comments.

“This is the time where I say we need to start giving the guy a pass on things like this because it really is starting to become kind of cruel,” one of the shows hosts said. “He’s going to lose anyways.”

– (Original story below)

GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney made an apparent gaffe while speaking at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills Saturday that liberal pundits will have a field day with.

While explaining how concerned he was for his wife, Ann, after he discovered that her plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday because of an electrical fire, Romney said it is “dangerous” and a “real problem” that plane windows don’t roll down.

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

As Gawker explains, “Also very dangerous: installing roll-down windows in airplanes, the cabins of which depend upon precise levels of air pressurization to keep passengers and crew members from passing out due to lack of oxygen.”

While it’s obvious that Romney’s comments came out of concern for his wife, if he wasn’t joking, let’s just hope he doesn’t decide to get into the aeronautics business.

There has been some speculation that Romney made the comments jokingly, however, the Romney campaign has yet to comment.

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